"A Church that doesn't provoke any crisis, a gospel that doesn't unsettle, a word of God that doesn't get under anyone's skin, a word of God that doesn't touch the real sin of society in which it is being proclaimed, what gospel is that? Archbishop Oscar Romero (1917-1980) "Never let other people define your reality or put you into bondage to their ways of thinking." Jerry Maneker.

Monday, March 22, 2010

UPDATE, March 23, 2010: The following is an email I sent to Lt. Dan Choi. His email address is: contact@ltdanchoi.com.

It would be wonderful if as many people as possible expressed their gratitude to him for what he is doing to make possible equality for LGBT people.

Dear Lt. Choi: God bless you for your courage, the service you have done for our country, and the service you are doing for countless numbers of LGBT people who, because of the very nature God gave them, are consigned to pariah status and second-class citizenship. Please know how grateful so many are for your sacrifices and dignity, and I frankly view you as the Martin Luther King of the LGBT Civil Rights Movement! My very best wishes, Jerry Maneker.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I really believe that Lt. Dan Choi has become the catalyst for an exponential increase of the momentum in the struggle for equal rights for LGBT people! His sense of dignity, poise, and intelligence enables him to articulate the need for equal rights in a way we have not seen since Martin Luther King.

Indeed, he may well be the Martin Luther King of the LGBT Civil Rights movement!

He is not only extremely articulate and poised, but has already begun to pay the price that is part and parcel of that "season of suffering" than Martin Luther King said was essential for African Americans to win full and equal civil rights.

After listening to Dan Choi speak; after seeing his sense of dignity and his poise in front of the media, do you think for one minute that he refers to himself, or even thinks of himself, as a "queer" or as a "fag?" I'd bet my bottom dollar that he never sees himself in that way or refers to himself in that way!

He has class, and it abundantly shows!

Unfortunately there are also some people with class who refer to themselves by use of hateful words, but that is largely due to their false and tragic belief that they are somehow "reclaiming" and "redefining" those words by their use of them; they feel that they are "empowering" and "liberating" themselves by their use.

However, we may well be entering an era in this Civil Rights movement when such false consciousness will be increasingly seen to be traitorous to the goals of achieving full and equal civil rights; show a lack of dignity and class by the people who continue to choose to use such words as self-identifiers; show such people to not really be interested in acquiring full and equal civil rights despite their rhetoric to the contrary.

A major tragedy of the LGBT Civil Rights movement is that so many Gay people refer to themselves by use of hateful terms that there is now going to be a division within the ranks: those who see themselves as "queer" and those who see themselves as "Gay Americans."

And it is this latter group that will provide the dignity and meaningful and coordinated individual and organizational activism necessary to continue this struggle to finally get full and equal civil rights in the U.S. and elsewhere!

In this connection, my good friend, Don Charles, has, as have most Gay people, been exposed to virtually all sorts of rhetorical (and often physical) assaults, all the while being called the very same homophobic epithets that many Gay people continue to use to identify themselves.

Don Charles wrote a letter briefly letting Steven Petrow, who authored an article entitled, Queeries: Beware of Sexting, how insulting that epithet is to a Gay person who has dignity and self-respect.

With Don Charles' permission, I'm reprinting the complete thread (in reverse order) of his exchange with Mr. Petrow: (I have omitted the personal information of those people who chose to comment on this matter in regard to Mr. Petrow's question that he publicly posed on Facebook.)

Mr. Petrow,

What a strange reply you sent to my request that you reconsider your casual use of hate speech. You say you had to poll opinions before deciding whether to adapt a derogatory term for your column title. I'm sure if you had polled a bunch of reactionary, Bible-bigoted Right Wingers, they'd agree that "Queeries" was an appropriate title for your column, too. What's more, I'm sure if, in the 1800s, you had asked most Black slaves if "niggers" was an appropriate name for them, they'd have answered in the affirmative. (The analogy I'm drawing between LGBT folk and slaves is quite deliberate.) And I'm sure if, in the 1930s and '40s, you had polled the German people about what Adolph Hitler was doing, they'd have given his administration an overwhelming thumbs-up. My point? There are no conditions under which ignorance stops being ignorant. Let me put it another way: if you smear lipstick on a pig, you've still got pork! "Clever, catchy, and not at all hateful?" After I've shared with you my personal experience with the word "queer" and other forms of hate speech? And then you have the gall to end this extended exercise in sarcasm with "cheers"? What a clown you are, sir. Forgive me if I refrain from laughing, but I don't feature your kind of comedy! I never did go for the kind that insults my intelligence. There comes a time in life when a rational person must decide for himself what is right or wrong; where going along with the crowd just doesn't cut it; where being "edgy" or "trendy" is no substitute for being responsible. I don't think you've reached that time in your life yet, Mr. Petrow! I wonder if you ever will? I'm sorry that I wasted my time trying to reason with you. I should have recognized you immediately as a "House Negro". Go on back to serving your master, before he gets cross with you.

Donny C. Hampton

On Sat, Mar 20, 2010 at 11:41 AM, steven petrow wrote:dear mr. hampton-thanks for writing me about this. before i named the column "queeries" i gave it a lot of thought and talked with several colleagues in my professional world. they thought it was clever, catchy and not at all hateful. since you wrote, i posted an abridged version of your note on my facebook accounts and asked people to respond to your comments. as you can see from their comments, your view wasn't shared by anyone who cared to comment (which doesn't mean some people don't feel the way you do). here are what the posters had to say. and, again, thanks for writing -- and presumably reading. cheers. sp

MR. PETRO ASKED HIS FACE BOOK READERS WHAT THEY THOUGHT ABOUT THE ORIGINAL EMAIL DON CHARLES SENT TO HIM: I got this email. What you think: "Why do you use this title [Queeries] for your column? Don't you know that "queer" is still a hateful word? Calling a column devoted to Gay topics "Queeries" is the like calling a column devoted to African-American topics "All About Niggers." Some Gay people have ignorantly... "reclaimed" this ugly term, but you can't reclaim something that hasn't been given up.

COMMENTS:

I may have no room to speak here, but I think "Queeries" is a clever term for a Q&A column!

I honestly thought it was a play on words....a shortened term for 'inquiries' and use of the word 'queer' as your questioner asked.Btw, has your reader noticed that African-Americans use the word 'nigger' in a lot of music? In today's world. it seems a word or term isn't so derogatory when used by the 'group' it reflects but when it's used by others, then it's deemed to be hateful.

In its earliest days, the gay and lesbian movement took its cues from the civil rights movement. Reclaiming pejoratives was one of the many tricks we learned. I haven't cringed hearing the words "fag" or "pansy" in decades, because they're my own now.

I guess for some people the sting of a word never goes away, despite a community's effort to reclaim it. The 'N' word, while used by some African Americans towards each other is certainly seen as one of the most horrific epithets when used ON an A-A by a non-A-A. Personally, if a someone uses any gay epithets, I look at it in context of the person, their usage and their general ignorance before I take offense.

I always take a cue from my grandmother, who smuggled Jews in Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia. She says, "It' doesn't matter what a person says. Any idiot can look around and figure out the the right thing to say that'll make people nod and clap for you. Look at what they do - how they behave."

I don't use the term to refer to myself as I've never particularly cared for it, but I don't find it particularly offensive, either. I suppose part of the reason is that I came out in 1982 - we were only finally getting around to acknowledging that gay women were, in fact, "lesbians". Queer, to me, says "unusual" or "out of the norm". I don't ... See Moreparticularly consider myself either, but I often jokingly use terms like "homo" and "'mo" in reference to myself. I am gay, I like being gay, and I like the word "gay."I suspect it's - mostly - a generational thing.

I didn't realize it was a hateful word. I guess it is if it's being yelled at me by a redneck or a basher... lol. If "queer" is an ugly term now, I suppose "gay" will be considered ugly at some point too. Words are arbitrary and only hold the meaning that a person gives them. Keep up the good work Steven!

The word queer has grown in use among young people due to its umbrella quality - it includes lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender folks, and the intersex community. In academia, we've seen a rise in pursuit of "queer studies." I recognize that some still find the word offensive, but I think it's here to stay. And I don't think it compares easily to "nigger" because "queer" already has so many legitimate uses. Wondering whether this letter writer was equally incensed by "Queer as Folk."

Perhaps my own friends of color are an exception, but I have often heard the n-word used as a term of affection between African-Americans. That is a closer parallel than the letter-writer's example of an offensive column title, since Steven's work here is clearly of us, by us, and for us GLBTs. Besides which, there is a play on words within "Queeries" that is NOT present in the "All About Niggers."

queer isn't a hateful word, just as lesbian isn't. it's usually a type you can check off in "sexual orientation." now f*g and d*ke i can agree with.

Turning oppressive language on its head. In other words, historically oppressed groups proactively reclaiming words previously used by their oppressor to — both symbolically and in most cases literally — rob them of their humanity. Such a great example of poetic justice!

Why do you use this title for your column? Don't you know that "queer" is still a hateful word? I appeal to you to please change it. Calling a column devoted to Gay topics "Queeries" is the equivalent of calling a column devoted to African-American topics "All About Niggers."

I live in the Bible Belt, and I'm regularly taunted with words like "queer" and "faggot". LGBT people are not "queers"! The label is inaccurate as well as derogatory. Some Gay people have ignorantly "reclaimed" this ugly term, but you can't reclaim something that hasn't been given up. Believe me, it hasn't been given up! Please stop helping bigots feel comfortable with their bigotry.

There is a point when one has to own his/her dignity, demand the respect due to any human being, demand full and equal civil and sacramental rights regardless of the negative messages and hostility that have been visited on that person in the past, or even in the present. And those goals will not be realized as long as the minority group accepts its inferior status, and revels in it by referring to its members by the very same terms used by the most virulent homophobes throughout history and in our midst.

No self respecting person, Gay or Straight, stands for being treated as less than fully human; no self respecting person, Gay or Straight, uses negative self-identifiers that have been historically (and contemporarily) used by their oppressors. The slave mentality is blamed on others, but the fact is that it ultimately resides within each human being whether or not to accept that mentality.

I truly believe that Dan Choi is the catalyst for equal rights to become a reality in the foreseeable future! Not only because his words and actions can significantly help change the hearts and minds of potential Straight allies, but because his persona can have enormous influence on judicial interpretations of Constitutional law.

He has put a human, dignified, and very public face on Gay people as citizens who are illegally discriminated against, and that face will likely favorably influence federal court decisions.

Moreover, he presents a face contrary to the homophobic stereotype that "Gay merely equals Sex," and contradicting that one-dimensional stereotype is essential for acquiring the very same civil rights that heterosexual citizens enjoy.

5 comments:

When I read over my response to Steven Petrow's arrogance and ignorance, I realize that I wrote it in the Jerry Maneker style! You have definitely influenced my polemic, Jerry. Incidentally, I emailed a copy of my "Stamp Out Homophobe Mouth" manifesto to Mr. Petrow's employer, The Huffington Post. The website would not even accept it in their email box. I've emailed the Huffington Post in the past with no problem. Do you think I've been banned again?

Thanks so much, Don Charles. You might well have been banned from that site. In my opinion, "true believers" who refuse to be enlightened as to how their rhetoric is helping to prevent the realization of the very goal they say they are working toward are just as dangerous as the most rabid homophobe! In fact, I'd rather deal with a principled reactionary any day than with some politically correct airhead! Best wishes, Jerry.

I disagree with your point completely. While you might find the term "queer" offensive you shouldn't try to stop other people from using it in a non-hateful way. I'm bisexual and like queer as a term because it is very broad, it includes everyone who doesn't identify with the sexual/gender majority. I think that it would hurt our cause to make a big deal out of the use of "queer". People will be annoyed at whoever tries to stop the use of the word and see it as radicalism, plus there are a lot of lgbt people who will not be on your side, in order to get anything done we need to be united in our cause.

Hi Anonymous: "Agreement" is not as essential as "dignity!" During the African American Civil Rights movement, for example, it was unheard of for African Americans to refer to themselves as "Niggers." White Supremacists used (and still use) that term, but African Americans never did.

Similarly, in the LGBT Civil Rights movement, LGBT people should never refer to themselves by use of such hateful words as "queer," "dyke," and the like. Despite the intent in the use of such denigrating words as self-identifiers, their use presents a face to the oppressor of self-loathing and shame, the very traits that homophobes have inculcated in many LGBT people all their lives.

You are not a "queer!" You are a Bisexual American, and that is an honorable and accurate description! Best wishes, Jerry.

Attaboy, Jerry! As to the points made by the proud "queer" who wasn't proud enough to identify himself by name:

1)There is no way to call yourself or others "queer" in a "non-hateful" way. Applied to human beings, the word is inherently hateful!

2) Calling "queer" an umbrella term for everyone who isn't heteosexual or of binary gender reinforces the false idea that LGBT folk deviate from the norm. Lesbians, Gay men, bisexual and transsexual folk are part of the norm!

3) The misguided Gay people who've adopted "queer" for casual use have already hurt the equality movement! They've heightened ignorance about LGBT identity and made it easier for bigots to feel comfortable expressing their bigotry.

4) If it annoys people to be warned that they're heading off the edge of a high cliff, then let there be as much annoyance as necessary to prevent disaster! Uniting behind a bad idea does the equality movement no good at all, and anybody with common sense knows as much. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that this person is a "stealth" bigot, masquerading as bisexual and trying to deliberately spread confusion in the Gay blogosphere.

THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING GENDER-NEUTRAL BATHROOMS

Use of Public Restrooms is Frequently Very Dangerous for Transgender People

SETTLE FOR NOTHING LESS THAN SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

SEPARATE IS NOT EQUAL!

"Where is the Life we have lost in living?Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"T. S. Eliot

A MANIFESTO FOR EMPOWERMENT

There is a point when one has to own his/her dignity, demand the respect due to any human being, demand full and equal civil and sacramental rights regardless of the negative messages and hostility that have been visited on that person in the past, or even in the present.

And those goals will not be realized as long as the minority group accepts its inferior status, and revels in it by referring to its members by the very same terms used by the most virulent homophobes throughout history and in our midst, and that some of its members burlesques their very existence by projecting images for public consumption that give further ammunition to their oppressor.

No self respecting person, Gay or Straight, stands for being treated as less than fully human; no self respecting person, Gay or Straight, uses negative self-identifiers that have been historically (and contemporarily) used by their oppressors.

It is high time that LGBT people recognize their essential normality, dignity, inherent worth, and demand full and equal civil and sacramental rights enjoyed by every other citizen!

The slave mentality is blamed on others, but the fact is that it ultimately resides within each human being whether or not to accept that mentality.

FOR LGBT CHRISTIANS AND FOR ALL CHRISTIANS TO NEVER FORGET!

TAKEN FROM "THE BELL"I am God's child (John 1:12)I am Christ's friend (John 15:15 )I am united with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17)I am bought with a price (1 Cor 6:19-20)I am a saint (set apart for God). (Eph. 1:1)I am a personal witness of Christ. (Acts 1:8)I am the salt & light of the earth (Matt 5:13-14)I am a member of the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27)I am free forever from condemnation ( Rom. 8: 1-2)I am a citizen of Heaven. I am significant (Phil 3:20)I am free from any charge against me (Rom. 8:31 -34)am a minister of reconciliation for God (2 Cor 5:17-21)I have access to God through the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:18)I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Eph. 2:6)I cannot be separated from the love of God (Rom 8:35-39)I am established, anointed, sealed by God (2 Cor 1:21-22 )I am assured all things work together for good (Rom. 8:28 )I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit (John 15:16 )I may approach God with freedom and confidence (Eph. 3: 12 )I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13)I am the branch of the true vine, a channel of His life (John 15: 1-5)I am God's temple (1 Cor. 3: 16). I am complete in Christ (Col. 2: 10)I am hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3). I have been justified (Romans 5:1)I am God's co-worker (1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor 6:1). I am God's workmanship (Eph.2:10)I am confident that the good works God has begun in me will be perfected.(Phil. 1: 5)I have been redeemed and forgiven ( Col 1:14). I have been adopted as God'schild (Eph 1:5)

About Me

I'm Professor Emeritus of Sociology at California State University, Chico. I have been married since 1962, and my wife and I have two grown daughters. I've been an ordained priest in the Congregational Catholic Church, a division of the Independent Catholic Churches International (ICCI) that is no longer active. For many years, I have had a weekly column in the Sacramento Valley Mirror entitled, "Christianity and Society," where I deal with a variety of social issues from a biblical and sociological perspective. I also contribute regularly to the Online magazine, "Whosoever," that deals with topics of relevance to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Christians and their allies; I also have a web site entitled, "Radical Christianity," located at www.radicalchristianity.net, that contains some of my articles concerning "progressive Christianity," and the need for Christians worthy of the name to confront the perversions of the Gospel of grace that have gained ascendancy so as to change the face of much of the institutional "Church" in America, and threaten the very foundations of liberty and democracy in America itself.

Followers

For All Disciples of Christ

Jesus preached love amidst hatred; unity amidst divisiveness; faith amidst the legalistic religious leaders of His day...wholeness amidst the brokenhearted; freedom amidst those held in yokes of bondage...Jesus spoke truth to power, and we, as Christians, are to do no less!

THE LORD WHOM WE SERVE

"Jesus had no servants,yet they called Him Master.

Had no degree,yet they called Him Teacher .

Had no medicines,yet they called Him Healer.

Had no army,yet kings feared Him.

He won no military battles,yet He conquered the world.He committed no crime,yet they crucified Him.

He was buried in a tomb,yet He lives today.

Feel honoredto serve such a Leaderwho loves us."

FROM "THE CHRISTIAN LEFT"

"It’s easy to see the sinfulness and corruption of “the world” for what they are when you spend enough time reading what Jesus said. It has nothing to do with abortion and gay marriage. It has everything to do with the lust for money, power and control. Starving the poor and depriving the sick of health care, not caring for the least of these among us, is what angers God the most. It’s easy to see why the road is narrow. The world is very efficient at convincing even Christians that its agenda is good. When people try to carry out God’s agenda they’re labeled “Socialists” and demonized."

FROM A SERMON BY MARTIN LUTHER KING: "Remaining Awake Through A Great Revolution"

"On some positions, cowardice asks the question: 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question: 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question: 'Is it popular'? But conscience asks the question: 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when a true follower of Jesus Christ must take a stand that's neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must take that stand because it is right."

A CRUCIAL MESSAGE FROM DON CHARLES

"The only acceptable topping [of Christianity] is unconditional love! Top the Christian message with hatred, and it is no longer Christian. It is no longer fit to eat. Its validity, its usefulness, its whole raison d'être is erased, and instead of leading people to Heaven, it diverts them toward Hell. You cannot be a true Christian and believe it's okay for that to happen!"

MUST-READING FOR THOSE INVOLVED IN THE LGBT CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLE

The following link takes you to a series of articles by Don Charles Hampton that deal with many dimensions of the LGBT Civil Rights struggle. Each of these articles are nothing short of brilliant, and are must-reading for all those who are both serious about this struggle, and who are in any way intimidated by professing "Christian" rhetoric that is used to bear false witness and defame LGBT people.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/stuffedanimal

In most Native American history, Gay, Lesbian, and/or Transgendered individuals were considered holy and treated with the highest respect. They were the historians, the healers, and the people of empowerment. They possessed the delicate balance of male and female, and were often honored for being unique and having a different spiritual calling. For their tribes, they were the mediators between the spirit world and the natural world. They were known in their separate languages as “naadle” (nad le) They who love their own kind, translation from the Navajo language; “winkte” (wink-day) would be woman, translation from the Lakota Sioux language; and “bade” (bah-day) male/female person, translation from the Hidatsa language. (By the staff of the Two-Spirit Society of Denver.)

CIVIL RIGHTS ARE NOT TO BE VOTED UPON BY THE ELECTORATE!

We can't spend our time and tremendous amounts of monies trying to get the majority of the electorate to vote for equal rights. If integration of African Americans was put on the ballot in each state during the civil rights era, we would still have segregation and Jim Crow laws! There must be meaningful, coordinated, and aggressive grassroots, street, and organizational activism, coupled with the filing of civil suits at the federal level, to achieve equal rights. "Separate is not equal," and that fact must be, and undoubtedly will be, affirmed by the Judiciary in regard to Gay people, as it was for African Americans, and not left to the will and whim of the majority of the electorate, for to do so demeans Gay people, and puts each and every minority group's rights up for grabs. We would never think of putting one or more civil rights of Jews, of African Americans, of Asians, etc. on the ballot to be voted upon, and Gay people's civil rights must not be treated any differently.

Christianity Is A Lifestyle

Christianity is a lifestyle -- a way of being in the world that is simple, non-violent, shared, and loving. However, we made it into a clever "religion," in order to avoid the lifestyle itself. One could be warlike, greedy, racist, selfish, and vain, and still believe that Jesus is their "personal Lord and Savior." The world has no time for such silliness anymore. The suffering on Earth is too great. - Richard Rohr

THE BIBLE IS NOT GOD

The Bible is NOT God! To elevate the Bible to the status of God, not only is an injustice to scholarship and logic, but is a direct offense against God Himself. We are to have no idols other than God, and biblical literalists and many of those who seek to counter them, both use the Bible as an idol, elevating it to the point where they explicitly or implicitly believe that it contains all of God's Word to us. Jesus is God's Word, and Jesus makes very clear what God expects of His followers: to trust God over and above seen circumstances, and to love other people! That's what puts the lie to homophobic professing Christians' selective use of certain biblical passages to "justify" and impose their hateful prejudices on others; their re-defining Christianity, and God Himself, in their own image, thereby using not only the Bible, but themselves, as their idols; ignoring Jesus' words, work, ministry, and life! The Bible is best viewed as a "finger" that points us to a couple of the many dimensions of God. What the biblical literalists do is equivalent to the following: If I ask you where you live and you point in a given direction and I just keep staring at your finger, I'll soon come to know everything about your finger, its size, shape, fingerprint, and every single detail about your finger, but I won't come any closer to knowing where you live. I have to look to the place where your finger is pointing in order to know where you live. The same holds true for those who elevate the Bible as being the "inerrant word of God." No! Only God is the Inerrant Word!

A Question That Must Be Raised in Every Public Venue

If someone is emotionally and sexually intact, why would there be a need for their obsessive condemnation of other consenting adults' emotional/sexual orientations?

LGBT PEOPLE AS "EUNUCHS SO BORN FROM THEIR MOTHER'S WOMB."

For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb.... (Matthew 19:12)

I don't think any scholar who is truly spiritually sensitive can not see that "eunuchs so born from their mother's womb" refers to Gay and Transgender people who, on this earth, most closely reflect God Who is Spirit and Who transcends gender. LGBT people are God's gift to this world, and to His Church. Too many of the former largely reject that gift; Christ's Church, unfortunately, seems to comprise very few within the institutional Church.

THE CONFUSION OF "HEDONISM" WITH "GAY."

In my opinion, a distinction has to be made between "hedonism" and "Gay," and much public persona of Gay people, and the commentators on all too many LGBT-oriented sites, seem to be more hedonistic than Gay. Frivolity, indecency, and use of hateful epithets as self-identifiers tell us far more about them than it does about Gay people. They use "queer" because they feel "queer," and don't see being Gay in any other terms than being "indecent" and "abnormal." And many of them pride themselves on being outsiders! This reflects their psyches, and they are too dense to accept that fact, let alone change their rhetoric and self-perceptions. They resent anyone who tells them that they are not "mistakes," and that dignity is essential in living one's life, and they undoubtedly thrive on lack of such dignity. I learned a lot from a transgender woman, for example, when she resented the fact that I said that she wasn't a mistake! She tenaciously hung on to the fact that she is a mistake and resented any other possibility. The same is true for most Gay people who comment on assorted Gay-oriented sites. Blindly accepting the oppressor's rhetoric and actions has done inordinate harm to many LGBT people, and that's a great deal of what we must fight against.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS, AUGUST 4, 1857

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what a people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. Men may not get all they pay for in this world; but they must pay for all they get. If we ever get free from all the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and, if needs be, by our lives, and the lives of others.

He, who begins by loving Christianity, better than truth, will proceed by loving his own sect or church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all. -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

A NOTE ON THE COUNTERPRODUCTIVE USE OF PEJORATIVE SELF-IDENTIFIERS

It is important for me to underscore the fact that some titles in this Links section, despite their often excellent content, have the word "Queer" in them, including some papers that I wrote years ago. It should be underscored that these sites’ titles spread ignorance and are counterproductive to the acquisition of full and equal civil and sacramental rights for LGBT people. The Lord doesn’t create "queer" human beings!

A QUOTE FROM ROBIN TYLER, PETITIONER-CASE TO OVERTURN PROP. 8

"No civil rights movement has EVER lost. Never. It is not a matter of if our community will win full equal rights, including marriage. It is only a matter of when. But as in all civil rights movements, we will have to fight like hell for it."

-

CESAR CHAVEZ' ADDRESS TO THE COMMONWEALTH CLUB, NOV. 9, 1984

Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF GAY RIGHTS ACTIVISM, BY DON CHARLES

1.Thou shalt not address thyself or thy kind with inaccurate, disrespectful or dehumanizing labels, nor shalt thou do or say anything to marginalize thyself or enable thy own oppression.

2.Thou shalt not treat thy moral crusade like a political campaign.Thou shalt not value the welfare of political parties over the welfare of LGBT folk, nor shalt thou bind the equality movement to any political party.

3.Thou shalt not disrespect transgender identity or transgender bodies, and thou shalt not kick thy transsexual brethren to the curb for political advantage.Thou shalt endeavor to rid thy movement of transphobia as well as biphobia, sexism, heterosexism, racism, sexual racism, ageism and class bias.

4.Thou shalt not defend, attend or fund any religious institution which preaches genocide against LGBT folk, and thou shalt pursue separation of church and state with all thy mind, heart and soul.Thou shalt directly confront religious institutions that preach LGBT genocide, and thou shalt use authentic, inclusive theology as a weapon against hateful doctrine.

5.Thou shalt not use the equality movement as thy vehicle for exhibitionism, hedonism, political ambition or self-promotion.

6.Thou shalt not excuse any form of inequality (such as exclusion from marriage or military service) on ideological grounds, and thou shalt not give LGBT equality less importance than other social issues.

9.Thou shalt access public and private education systems and use those systems to diminish fear and ignorance about LGBT people.Thou shalt not be turned aside from this goal by scurrilous accusations of "recruitment".

10.Thou shalt protect, nurture and serve as role models for LGBT youth, and thou shalt protect, honor and provide for LGBT elders.

BULLETPROOF FAITH By Rev. Candace Chellew-Hodge

Every gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Christian (and others) should read this superb life-changing book that gives psychological and spiritual strategies for dealing with homophobia. [Click here to order.]

CRISIS By Mitchell Gold

A truly empowering book. The subtitle of this book tells it all: "40 Stories Revealing The Personal, Social, And Religious Pain And Trauma Of Growing Up Gay In America" [Click here to order.]

THE GOD BOX, By Alex Sanchez

GAY CHRISTIAN 101, By Rick Brentlinger

An excellent resource showing how being Gay is in no way inconsistent with being a Christian. [Click here to order.]

A PRIEST'S TALE: AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A GAY PRIEST By Fr. Donald Andrew Dodman

"Exploring the questions of sexuality, religion, and the way beliefs evolve throughout a lifetime, A Priest's Tale: Autobiography of a Gay Priest is a unique window on the life of a gay man whose thirty years working as a priest of the Anglican Church of Canada provide him with a particular insight into the absurdity of the human condition and the intrinsic balance existing between the flesh and the spirit." [Click here to order.]

I DO...DON'T I? By Mary Stroube

An Excellent Book on the Legal Issues Surrounding Domestic Partnerships in California [Click here to order.]

"CALL ME TROY"

This film shows the story of Rev. Troy Perry, and the activism and founding of the Metropolitan Community Churches. [Click here to order the DVD]